


That One Knows Me

by rsadelle



Category: Bandom, Jonas Brothers, The Academy Is...
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-22
Updated: 2012-03-22
Packaged: 2017-11-02 08:39:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/367074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rsadelle/pseuds/rsadelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mike swings his feet down onto the floor and slides past Kevin in the doorway. It's too close, and Kevin can't help the way his eyes sweep over Mike's form. Mike's eyes crinkle at the edges, and then he's gone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That One Knows Me

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be a college AU, with poetry, and then I got distracted by the rest of TAI and Christine and lost track of it. Title from Walt Whitman's "Among the Multitude."

Kevin is doing okay in Professor Thompson's poetry class, but he still isn't sure about the topic for his paper, which is why he's in the English building at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. For reasons unclear to Kevin, his discussion section leader holds office hours on Friday afternoon. Maybe it's to discourage people from coming to visit. Kevin certainly chose this time because he's not likely to run into any of his classmates.

Or at least that was his plan. When he gets to William's door, there's already someone there. Kevin sees his shoes first, plain black high-tops kicked up onto the edge of William's desk. Above the high-tops are tight jeans, and above those, a plain t-shirt, and above that a guy staring at Kevin.

"It's the middle of the semester," the guy says. "You should know by now that no one actually wants you in their office hours."

Before Kevin can figure out what he's supposed to say to that, William says, "Mike, stop terrorizing my students. You have your own office. Go use it."

Mike swings his feet down onto the floor and slides past Kevin in the doorway. It's too close, and Kevin can't help the way his eyes sweep over Mike's form. Mike's eyes crinkle at the edges, and then he's gone.

"You just survived an encounter with Mike Carden," William tells him.

Kevin knows who Mike Carden is; everyone knows who Mike Carden is. Kevin's roommate last year complained bitterly about how hard his class was. Lissa down the hall has him this semester, and Kevin's heard from her that getting to look at him for an hour three days a week more than makes up for how hard his class is. He's also heard that the only thing anyone knows about Mike's personal life is that "he's not sleeping with Bill. Trust me," Lissa had said. "No guy who can pull a girl like the one Bill was with is hooking up with anyone else." Kevin looks at William with renewed interest and wishes he could see the pictures on his desk; if that was Mike Carden, William is probably the Bill he's not sleeping with.

"Come on in," William says. "Did you have a question?"

Kevin stops thinking about Mike Carden for the time being and pulls out his anthology and a notebook. "I don't know if my topic is a good one."

*

Kevin goes dancing with Lissa on Saturday night. He likes dancing, even if he knows he's not any good at it, and Lissa says she likes having him along.

"You're the best kind of guy to take dancing," is what she actually said. "I know you're not going to try to feel me up, and you're good backup."

She's never outright asked, and Kevin's never directly told her, but he knows that she's figured out things about him that he hasn't ever told anyone.

Lissa finds someone else to dance with, leaving Kevin alone in the middle of the dance floor. He doesn't care; he doesn't need anyone else around him to have fun. He does get thirsty after a while. Some of the places Lissa has taken him have both a bar and a separate place to get nonalcoholic drinks for people, like Kevin and Lissa, who are underage and have black Xs on the backs of their hands instead of wristbands on their wrists. This place has just one bar, and Kevin has to try to politely make his way through the people crowded around it.

Somebody grabs his arm, and he turns toward it and finds himself looking at Mike Carden.

"You've got rhythm," Mike says, leaning in close, "but you don't know what to do with it."

"Um," Kevin says. If he were cooler, he'd have something else to say. Mostly he's okay with not being cool.

Mike's hand slides down Kevin's arm to his wrist. "Come on, I'll show you."

"But I'm thirsty," Kevin says, and what is he doing? The infamous Mike Carden is, he's pretty sure, asking him to dance, and he's not saying yes. Lissa will yell at him later if he tells her about it.

Mike smirks at him and presses a glass into Kevin's hand. Kevin looks down at it dubiously, because the black Xs on his hands aren't the only things keeping him from drinking.

"Just soda," Mike says.

Kevin hesitates for a moment; he doesn't actually know Mike and he's heard plenty of horror stories about what happens to the unwary at bars. Lissa's still here somewhere, though, and he decides to trust Mike. He drinks the end of Mike's soda, and Mike takes the glass back from him, deposits it on a table as he pulls Kevin onto the dance floor.

Kevin's not entirely sure what he's supposed to be doing here, but Mike seems to have an idea. He puts his hands on Kevin's hips, his thumbs slipping under the edge of Kevin's shirt to brush against his skin.

It's very forward, but Kevin likes it, and he lets Mike move his hips in time with the music. Mike steps closer, slides his hands across Kevin's waist, and moves them together. Kevin puts his hands on Mike's waist and takes a half step closer. They're so close that their chests brush together every time they move toward each other and if the music weren't so loud Kevin would be able to hear Mike's breath.

Kevin's heart pounds, and his breath speeds up. He feels almost dizzy.

"That's it," Mike says. He's probably talking loudly to be heard over the music, but it seems like he's speaking right into Kevin's ear.

Kevin forgets that there are other people there, and that Mike probably didn't come to the club just to dance with him, and it's a shock when William appears next to them.

"We're taking off," he says to Mike.

Mike nods. "I'm coming." He strokes his hands over Kevin's waist as he pulls away, his thumbs leaving heated trails on Kevin's skin. "I'll see you around."

Kevin numbly says, "Yeah," and waves at William, who waves back.

He's alone on the dance floor for a few moments, trying to move the way he was moving with Mike, and then Lissa grabs his arm.

"That was Mike Carden."

"Yeah, I know."

Lissa pulls on his arm until he follows her off the dance floor and to the quieter table she's sharing with some of her other friends. "Kevin was dancing with Mike Carden," she announces to the table.

Kevin can feel himself blushing, but it's hot on the dance floor, so it won't look too strange.

Amanda, one of Lissa's friends, sighs and says, "He never dances with anyone. I guess now we know why he doesn't dance with any of the girls who throw themselves at him."

Kevin blushes even more.

*

Kevin genuinely does have a question about his homework, but he also goes to William's office hours on Friday afternoon because he wants to know if it's always just William and Mike hanging out.

Like the first time, he sees Mike's shoes first, the same black high-tops kicked up onto the same spot on William's desk.

Kevin knocks on the edge of William's door, and they both look up at him.

"Come to talk poetry?" Mike asks. "Kevin, right?"

"Yeah," Kevin says, "I mean, yes that's my name, and I came to talk to William."

This time Mike doesn't get up and leave, just gestures at him to go ahead.

Kevin smiles uncertainly at him and sits down in the other chair in front of William's desk. "Can I use one of the poems from class and something else for this paper?"

"That depends," William says. "What did you have in mind?"

"'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' and Song of Solomon."

William's eyebrows go up. "That's ambitious. Why those two?"

"They both use nature metaphors."

William mmms, and Kevin's pretty sure his thinking actually includes looking at Mike. "Okay, but stick to one chapter of Song of Solomon. I want you to be able to really analyze it."

"Okay, thanks."

"You're really going to let him do that?" Mike asks. "Thompson won't flip?"

"It's actual respected poetry," William says. "Not modern lyrics."

"'I want to feel you from the inside' is at least as respectable as anything you teach."

Kevin has no idea what they're talking about, but it has the feel of a familiar argument.

"Too vulgar," William says.

"How is it any different from 'batter my heart, three-person'd God'?"

William laughs. "That's religion, not love, and it's not on the syllabus for this class." To Kevin he says, "Mike has very definite ideas about poetry. Before he was the scourge of the economics department, he minored in English. We were both in Thompson's seminar a couple of years ago, and he fought with Thompson about that all semester."

Mike grins lazily at Kevin. "Not all love poetry has to be roses and moonlight." He tips his chin up at Kevin. "What's your favorite love poem?"

Kevin glances at William. "It's not one from class. 'Among the Multitude' by Walt Whitman."

Mike's grin turns to amusement that makes Kevin unsure if Mike is laughing at him. "Whitman," he repeats.

"What's yours?" Kevin asks.

It might have been the wrong thing to do, because Mike rakes him over with a look before he answers.

"'Had we but world enough and time, / this coyness, lady, were no crime.'"

Kevin blushes. He didn't recognize the poems they were talking about earlier, but he vividly remembers Professor Thompson's lecture about "To His Coy Mistress" and "The Flea."

Mike's still staring at him, and Kevin turns to William to get away from it. "What's yours?"

"Byron, 'She Walks in Beauty.'"

That's another poem from class, and Kevin nods. He's saved from having to think of something else to say by a knock on the open door. All three of them turn to look, and Kevin recognizes the skinny guy with blond curls from Professor Thompson's class.

"Come on in," William says. "We're talking poetry."

"You and Mike are always talking poetry." The guy tilts his head and looked at Kevin. "You're in Thompson's class, right?"

"Yeah, Kevin." Kevin holds out his hand and the other guy shakes it.

"Adam." Adam lets go of Kevin's hand. "Billvy won't let me be in his section, even though I took Mike's class last year."

"Mike's not as softhearted as I am."

"Which is why I'm here and not in his office. Do you have a copy of _Sonnets from the Portuguese_ I can borrow?"

William nods at the bookshelves along the wall. "Middle of the fourth shelf, behind Mike's head."

Mike twists in his chair without moving his feet off of William's desk and pulls a book off the shelf. "You know the library has this." He leans half over Kevin as he hands the book to Adam.

Kevin has danced with Mike; it's stupid for that to make his stomach flutter.

"Yeah," Adam says, "but if I borrow it from Bill, he might talk to me about it."

"I'm not helping you with your paper," Bill says. "You can go talk to your own TA."

"Don't look at me," Mike says, as Adam does just that. "I'm not helping either."

Adam tucks the book into his backpack. "You both suck."

He says it so much the way Joe would make a similar complaint that Kevin can't help laughing. He just shrugs when Adam looks at him.

"Adam," Mike says, "favorite love poem."

"Easy," Adam says, "'i carry your heart.' Do you know that one, Kevin?"

Kevin shakes his head. It's not on the syllabus, and he hasn't run into it in his own reading.

"e.e. cummings," Adam says. "Look it up."

"We'll read some cummings at the end of the semester," William says, "but not that one."

"So," Mike says, "William's the romantic, Adam's cheerful, and Kevin likes Whitman."

"Mike," William says, "chose 'To His Coy Mistress.'"

Adam snorts. "He would. Are your office hours almost over? I want milkshakes."

"You always want milkshakes," Mike says.

Adam's shrug is cheerful. "I do."

"It's three-forty-five," William says. "I don't think anyone else is coming to my office hours. Kevin, you want to come with us for milkshakes?"

Kevin finds himself agreeing, and they decamp to the diner two blocks away from campus. Kevin ends up on the same side of the booth as Mike. Mike has one arm against the windowsill, turned in toward the booth, toward Kevin, as if he's trying to keep them all within his eyesight.

Adam gets a banana milkshake, William orders chocolate, and Kevin chooses vanilla. Mike smirks at him and orders cherry.

Mike, William, and Adam are clearly old friends; they carry on a comfortable conversation that doesn't exclude Kevin but doesn't seem to require him to participate in it either.

Kevin's still only halfway into his milkshake when a group of girls come into the diner. He wouldn't really notice, except that one of them's Lissa, and her eyes widen when she sees him.

Lissa comes over to talk to them, and when she leaves, someone asks if that's Kevin's girlfriend. He says no, and Mike kind of smirks at him around the straw of his milkshake. "Right, Whitman."

*

Kevin goes home and looks up the poetry Mike was quoting. "Closer" makes him blush and he moves on quickly, but once he reads the three-person'd god one, he can't stop thinking about it.

He looks up Mike's office hours - they're before William's, in a different building - and shows up at the end of them, when he won't be interrupting anyone who's there to talk about classes.

"Do you really think 'Batter My Heart' is a love poem?"

Mike leans back in his chair. "What do you think it's about?"

Kevin frowns and tries to work it through. "I think he's asking for God to make him feel His presence. To prove it."

Mike sits forward and looks rather alarmed. Then he drags Kevin across campus to William's office and grabs a book off the shelf. [This would be some poem he thinks can restore Kevin's faith.]

He's reading to Kevin when a woman comes in, tall and blonde and carrying a plate of fancy cookies. She goes around William's desk to kiss him and put the cookies down. William introduces her as Christine, and Kevin says, "Oh, that's why his favorite love poem is 'She Walks in Beauty.'"

Christine says, "Thank you," and then says, "Did Mike tell you his is 'The Flea'? That's what he usually tells people."

"'To His Coy Mistress,'" Kevin says.

Christine rolls her eyes and tells him what Mike's actual favorite love poem is. [This would be something totally romantic, and also complementary to "Among the Multitude."]

Christine is completely charmed by Kevin, until she finds out what Mike's reading him. "These two," she says, "think poetry can fix anything. You don't have to believe everything the church you grew up in teaches to believe." And then she invites Kevin to church with her.

*

Adam calls some time later in the story to invite Kevin along on one of Christine's famous museum tours (because she's an artist, so she knows all this stuff about art). Adam has to do the inviting because it would be creepy for Mike or William to do it.

Christine's artist friend Butcher comes along too, and after Christine takes them along and lectures for a bit - she's really good, and it's totally interesting - they split up to wander around a bit. William and Christine stick together of course, Adam and Butcher go off by themselves, and that leaves Mike and Kevin to go check out the armor together.

*

[I have no idea what else was going to happen in this story. At some point, Kevin goes to church with Christine, and obviously, Mike and Kevin date and eventually live happily ever after, but I don't know any of the details about that.]


End file.
